


Adam's Return

by Katiebug445, orphan_account



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-28
Updated: 2013-05-28
Packaged: 2017-12-13 05:08:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,653
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/820356
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Katiebug445/pseuds/Katiebug445, https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Really really big thanks to my friend Marjorie for allowing me to post this, AND for co-writing this thing with me. She's an amazing author and a wonderful friend and you all should really check out her fanfic that she wrote as a rewrite for all of season seven of Supernatural (Exogenesis, if you're curious. It's really worth it!)</p>
    </blockquote>





	Adam's Return

**Author's Note:**

> Really really big thanks to my friend Marjorie for allowing me to post this, AND for co-writing this thing with me. She's an amazing author and a wonderful friend and you all should really check out her fanfic that she wrote as a rewrite for all of season seven of Supernatural (Exogenesis, if you're curious. It's really worth it!)

When someone finally comes for him, it’s been about 360 years. As far as Adam’s concerned, that’s about 359 years, 11 months, and 30 days too long.

He thought maybe an angel would come to save him. Michael had told him about how Dean got rescued by Castiel- well,  _told_ is a relative term, more like  _force-fed the information through his skull_ \- and he thought maybe, just  _maybe_ , someone in Heaven would remember him, and get him out. It was a long shot, though.

Out of anyone, he didn’t expect Sam to show up. 

It wasn’t Lucifer. He could tell that right away- Lucifer was far different from Sam, though they once shared the same space. Doesn’t stop Adam from being righteously pissed.

“Adam, come on, we’ve got to-“

“You son of a  _bitch_ ,” Adam growled, shrinking back into the Cage. “You  _left_ me here for fucking  _ages_. Your own  _brother_.” 

Sam’s face looked pained. “We can’t talk about this right now, we have to get out of here.”

Adam shook his head. “No. I don’t want to go with you. I’ll…” He cast around wildly. “I’ll get out myself.”

Sam gazed at him sadly. “How?”

The thing was, Adam didn’t know how, all he knew was that the last thing he would be doing was leaving with a brother who abandoned him to face all those terrible things that Michael and Lucifer had for them- 

The memories hurt more than anything. Adam curled up on the ground, trying to block out the pain, the screaming, the endless burning-

And Sam’s hands gripped his shoulders. “Adam, please,” Sam begged. “Let me get you out of here. We can close this place up for good, I just have to get you out. I didn’t want to leave, I really didn’t want to leave you behind, but I didn’t have a choice.” Adam nodded vaguely, and let Sam help him stand, and thus they began a long, perilous journey back to the surface. 

Sure, Adam was still pissed. But he had to weigh his alternatives- one being staying in the Cage forever, the other being staying with Sam and Dean. It couldn’t be too bad, could it? 

Apparently, it could. 

Dean was all kinds of confused when not one, but both of his younger brothers emerged from the Pit. He was expecting Sam to come back with some poor sap draped over his arm, not Adam - his presumably gone but never forgotten little brother - who had been left to rot back there while he got his chance at an apple pie life and Sam got chummy with the other - jerkier - side of the family. His heart dropped into his stomach, and then his stomach dropped out of his body, as soon as he saw Adam’s battered and bloodied face. 

“Adam…” Dean said, almost as if it wouldn’t be real unless he said it. The eldest brother took a few cautious steps forward, first embracing Sam, who looked exhausted but still in one peace (on the outside, at least), and then Adam, who looked like he could use a really long shower, a few good meals, and a week’s worth of uninterrupted sleep. Adam was stiff in Dean’s arms, still insanely pissed at being left behind, but despite that the contact felt good, safe, like he still belonged there with his older brothers. 

“Dean,” he replied stiffly, pulling away and giving his brother a cold stare. “It’s been awhile.” 

Dean felt a stab of guilt in his heart at those words, but nodded his head anyways and tried to smile. “Yeah, it has. You look good though, considering…” he cleared his throat and gestured back towards the Impala, which was parked off on the side of the road. “How about we get some food in both of you and then we’ll head back to the motel, you can shower, and sleep this off. We’ll catch up later,” 

Sam and Adam both nodded in agreement and followed Dean back to the car, falling hard against the back seat once they were inside, and both let out groans on account of stiff and sore muscles and aching stomachs. 

Dean glanced back at the two of them and smiled to himself, happy that at least this much of his family was back together. 

~~~

Then things started getting bad. 

Every time he closed his eyes, Adam saw visions of Hell, visions of the Cage, the archangels. He could still feel the pain of the torture he went through at the hands of Michael and Lucifer both - constantly being kicked around and butchered for amusement - he stopped trying to fight it after the first 100 years. It did no good anyways. 

He altogether stopped trying to sleep after the third night. Adam would just lay awake in his own room next to Sam and Dean with the TV on mute, the curtains drawn back so he could see the stars, and the light on all night long. In the mornings, his brothers would collect him and the three would be off hunting some monster-of-the-day in some two stoplight town in middle America and then the routine would repeat itself. If it ended there, he could have dealt with it. But of course it didn’t. 

It started one evening when they were on a hunt. It was something simple, just a quick removal of a spirit haunting a high school. Adam was laying down salt across the doors and windows when it happened. He had been working on one of the last rooms in the entire building and made the mistake of doing the door first. After he finished with the windows, he made to step over the salt line across the floor and found himself unable to. He glanced questionably down at it, wondering why the hell he couldn’t move, and tried again, only to meet the same result. 

“Dean!” Adam cried, “Sam! I’m stuck. I need help!” 

The older Winchesters came running and Adam had barely told them what happened before they put two and two together. Adam was turning into a demon. 

~~~~

“So what are we gonna do about him?” Dean asked Sam one morning while they were getting ready. They hadn’t fetched Adam yet, and took the moment to themselves to discuss what they were going to do about their youngest brother. 

“I don’t know, Dean, what  _are_ we gonna do about him? Are we gonna kill him?” Sam replied a bit testily. 

“I think we might have to.” Dean said quietly, almost hoping Sam wouldn’t have heard him. He didn’t know if he would be able to lose Adam twice. He didn’t want to. Adam was good company to have around and every bit as good of a hunter as he and Sam were, and on top of all of that he was his little brother. 

Sam gave a shrug of his shoulders and hurried into the bathroom to brush his teeth. 

They had made a mistake in choosing to let Adam take a room next to theirs, especially when the walls were as thin as they were. He had heard every word the other two had said. His heart dropped when he realized that just because he was half a Winchester didn’t get him a pass - he knew this deep down already, but it still hurt - on living, it seemed. 

Adam decided to make the choice for the brothers and end things himself. So, one day when Sam and Dean were out on a food run, Adam grabbed the gun Dean insisted on him carrying at all times, and a piece of stationary and his own pen and wrote them a quick goodbye note before sticking the barrel in his mouth, saying his last prayer that God would allow him some solace, and fired. 

~~~

Dean and Sam found what remained of their youngest brother two hours later. The room was taped off and their were police cars everywhere around and it was damn near impossible to get through anywhere. Thankfully, they both had their fake badges on them and were able to sneak inside to see what happened. 

Dean was the one to find the note clutched in Adam’s still mostly warm, lifeless hand. 

 _Dean and Sam,_ it read,  _I’m sorry it had to end this way for me, but I decided that it would be easier for all of us if I did it myself rather than one of you two having to do it - the walls are thin, I know you were talking about it anyways. Believe me when I say that I’m better off now. Hopefully, my journey will end happily this time and you won’t have to worry about me anymore. I’m sorry I won’t be around to make sure the two of you stay out of trouble, but it’s time. I just want to see my mom again. I miss her more than anything in the world - you two understand that, right?_ Dean gave a small nod of his head that he hoped Sam wouldn’t see and finished reading it off to himself.  _You two, although you have a bad tendency to forget about me sometimes, are two of the best brothers any guy could ever ask for. I’ll miss you. — Adam._

 _  
_“So that’s it?” Dean asked, trying to hide the tremor in his voice, “Son of a bitch just fucking offed himself without so much as an in-person goodbye?”

He turned around and left Sam still staring over the letter and hauled ass back to his car, taking off before anybody could find a reason for him to stay, and figured Sam would understand that he needed to be alone for a little while. 

Dean drove until he was two towns away before he finally stopped the car on the side of the road and allowed himself to mourn for the little brother he hardly got a chance to know. 


End file.
